Giphy launches short video platform following first film festival

Giphy, the internet’s go-to platform for finding the perfect reaction GIF to send colleagues on Slack, soft-launched a new platform today dedicated to short-form video.

Giphy TV isn’t exactly Vine, but it’s not YouTube, either. It’s a site for short-form video (30 seconds or less) that people can upload and watch. Although the platform uses a more traditional form of video than GIFs, it’s a foray into the “future of entertainment,” according to a press release.

“Giphy is now looking to the future — the future of entertainment itself —and believes an important part of this will be micro-entertainment,” the release reads.

A Giphy representative tells The Verge this is just a soft-launch event to showcase what the company’s video platform will look like in 2019. The page currently features 118 videos on the site, which were submitted as part of Giphy’s first short-form video festival. The festival took place in New York City last night, and submissions were judged by some of today’s biggest creators, including YouTube’s Casey Neistat.

The new video page will be available for both desktop and mobile users, videos will be available in both HD and SD formats, and there is an option to keep a video looping. Users will be able to add videos to their favorites in a library and share them outside of the platform, too.

Although Giphy is the latest company to get involved in short-form video, it’s far from the first. Short-form video has thrived on platforms like Instagram and Snapchat for years. TikTok is the latest viral sensation to feature short-form videos, and it’s heavily influenced by a trend started by Vine so many years ago. Vine co-founder, Dom Hofmann, announced just yesterday that his successor to Vine, Byte, will launch in spring 2019.